Batman vs Master Chief
by Thebiguglyalien
Summary: Batman goes to the future to fight Master Chief.


"Remember," the woman in his ear told him. "The time loop will only be open for an hour."

"I know," he grumbled in reply. The Batman stepped forward into the device, his cape flowing behind him. "Now."

"Bruce?" the woman said. "Good luck." With a bright flash and an echoing crack, the menacing figure was gone.

Over five hundred years in the future, Batman remerged. "Oracle?" he barked into his earpiece.

"I'm still here Bruce," the voice said. "We're talking through time." While Barbara marveled at the ingenuity, Bruce had much larger concerns.

"I'm approaching the military outpost now. It appears they don't know I'm here yet. Good." Batman approached the outpost and conducted a thermal scan on the building. The room he was facing held two soldiers. One was just inside the door; the other was sitting across the room. In a split-second, Bruce determined his best course of action. He approached the door. It was a large gray block of metal, not unlike the wall around it. There were some patterns drilled into the metal, but it was otherwise uninteresting.

Bruce stopped as he reached the face of the building, and knocked on the door. The two soldiers jumped up, unsure of what was going on. The nearer one grabbed his sidearm and opened the door.

"This is a UNSC outpost! Where'd he go?" The marine's confusion was understandable, for when he opened the door, there was nobody there. "Stay on alert," he said to his partner. "Contact the station, see if we were–" The marine went silent. His partner, instantly realizing what was going on, bolted for the alarm. Jumping over the desk, he extended his arm towards the device on the wall. Just as his fingers scraped the alarm panel, he was intercepted in midair by a blunt force. He hit the ground, and next to him lay a small metal bat.

A siren's scream erupted from the walls, the alarm light flashing. "Oracle," Bruce said as he crouched down over one of the marine's bodies. "The alarm has been triggered. I'm tapping the user interface of one of the soldiers. I need you to extract whatever information you can. I've lost the element of surprise. He's going to be coming for me soon."

"Be careful. The more I'm reading off of their systems, the more this guy scares me."

"Don't worry about it. I've taken some precautionary measures. I'll be fine." But just then, an adjacent door slid open and several marines marched into the room. They were soon lost, however, as they were engulfed in a smoke cloud. Batman emerged in the next room over, a mess hall by the looks of it. Nobody was eating this late at night, so Bruce had the room to himself. That gave him time to strategize. These soldiers were much better than the thugs he was used to fighting. He accessed the input panel on the door, locked it, and then smashed the panel in. The door was sealed and the opening mechanism was broken.

"Barbara, I need you tell me where–"

"Bruce, you have much bigger problems right now." Before she could elaborate further, he heard an echoing clang from the door behind him.

"The door is sealed," Bruce thought aloud. "But if he's here…" Another clang, and his suspicions were confirmed. This time there was a considerable dent in the door. Bruce watched as the reinforced door took one more hit and came clattering to the ground. In the doorway stood a man in some form of power suit, armed with a rifle. Wasting no time, Batman's new adversary aimed his weapon and opened fire. Batman was already gone by the time the bullets flew.

"Cortana," Master Chief said. "Lock down the mess hall. I'm ending this." Energy fields sprang to life across the mess hall, blocking every possible exit. Once he was certain the room was secure, Master Chief checked his motion tracker. Nothing. The Batman couldn't have left the room, but it was like he had become invisible. The Chief slowly began to walk, hoping to draw out his opponent. He saw it just in time. Spinning around, the Chief caught the projectile that was hurled at him. It was a small metal bat with a flickering red light in the middle. Chief realized what was about to happen, but it was too late. Just as he had released his grip on the bat, it exploded, causing the Chief to stumble. As if it was a shadow leaping at him, the Batman rose up from nowhere and tackled the Chief in his confusion. But the Master Chief was too strong and too fast. Grabbing the Batman by his leg, the Chief hurled him across the room. Batman flew, landing in the wall ten yards away. The Master Chief reached for his gun, and pointed it in the direction he had thrown Batman. But Batman was gone.

"Chief! Behind you!" Master Chief jumped forward, firing his rifle at whatever was behind him. Cortana's warning was the only thing that saved the Master Chief, for at just that moment another explosive went off, this time a much stronger one. The spot where Master Chief stood just moments ago was a small crater. Then Chief noticed a puddle of blood on the ground. He had hit the Batman.

"Oracle," Batman whispered into his earpiece, hoping not to alert the Chief. "How much time do I have?"

"Thirty-seven minutes." The bullet wound in his shoulder was just a scratch, but it was definitely going to slow him down. Not something he could afford. Batman looked down from the rafter he was resting on. The Master Chief was patiently searching the room. "Bruce, a head on attack isn't going to work. Before you can even hurt him, you're going to need to–"

"I know what I'm doing." Bruce reached into his belt, and pulled out a small device he had designed for this encounter. He pushed the button on the side, and all of the lights went out. The energy fields holding Batman into the room shut down, and the appliances in the adjacent kitchen stopped humming. The only source of light was the bright yellow flicker around Master Chief as his shields shorted out. Then it was totally dark. Batman activated his cowl's night vision, and looked down at the Master Chief again. The solider tried his flashlight. To Bruce's surprise, it flicked on. The Master Chief's shields were down, but his suit was still operational.

Bruce rose to a crouching position on his rafter, hoping to get the drop on Master Chief. But as he got up, his shoulder objected with a searing pain. He let out a small grunt. Master Chief stopped what he was doing, as if to listen. Bruce remained perfectly still for a moment, hoping that he hadn't been detected. But then the Master Chief continued walking, searching the room. Bruce perched himself on the edge of his rafter and prepared himself to jump. He was interrupted by a metal ding, as something hit his perch. He looked over and saw a faint glow emanating from the light on a grenade. Bruce leapt off of the rafter, but the grenade exploded, sending shrapnel into the Batman's back.

Bruce landed in a crumpled heap on the floor below him. Silently thanking the armor plating he had installed in anticipation of this fight, he scanned his surroundings. The Master Chief was marching up to him, leading with his rifle. Bruce was seriously hurt, but he was still aware of what was going on around him. As the Chief approached with his weapon drawn, the Batman reached for his belt and grabbed the first tool he could reach. His grappling gun. It would have to do. He fired the gun at the Master Chief. It was not problem for the Chief to dodge it, but that gave Batman the time he needed to use a smoke pellet and charge toward the door. He was almost free, but with a loud bang, the Batman felt a sharp pain in his side and hit the ground. The Master Chief approached the broken body of the Batman, sidearm in hand. In his last act of desperation, Batman threw a batarang at the Master Chief. It bounced harmlessly off of the soldier's armor as he looked down his sights and pulled the trigger.


End file.
